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Harpers Weekly, February 19, 1861, (detail), Collection of U.S. House of Representatives |
PICKENS, Francis Wilkinson, (grandson of Andrew Pickens),
a Representative from South Carolina; born on a plantation on the
Toogoodoo River, St. Pauls Parish, Colleton District, S.C., April 7, 1805;
completed preparatory studies; attended Franklin College, Athens, Ga., and was
graduated from South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina) at
Columbia; studied law; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in
Edgefield District in 1829; engaged in planting; member of the state house of
representatives 1832-1833; elected as a Nullifier to the Twenty-third Congress
to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of George McDuffie; reelected as
a Nullifier to the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Congresses and elected as a
Democrat to the Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh Congresses and served from
December 8, 1834, to March 3, 1843; chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs
(Twenty-sixth Congress); member of the state senate 1844-1846; member of the
Nashville southern convention in 1850; delegate to the Democratic National
Convention in 1856; unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate in 1857
to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Andrew P. Butler; Minister to Russia
1858-1860; governor of South Carolina 1860-1862; died in Edgefield, Edgefield
County, S.C., January 25, 1869; interment in Edgefield Cemetery.
BibliographyEdmunds, John B., Jr.
Francis W. Pickens and the Politics of Destruction. Chapel
Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986.
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